Cooking and Running my way to Wellness

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I gained weight today. There is no reason I should have gained weight and in fact I expected to lose weight based upon my eating and exercise yesterday. I have lost 5lbs in the last 3 days eating high carb low fat mainly and mostly raw. Rationally it makes sense that there might be a stall. In fact, I probably have more than 2 lbs of food inside me right now and that would explain the entire weight gain. But here is the thing: if you are an emotional eater, that doesn’t matter. There is an impulsive and immediate reaction that says “I want food” and even gives us permission to eat all the things that we may restrict during cleaner eating phases. In my case it even says, “Go ahead eat the pizza, ice cream, cookies” when I am allergic to dairy and wheat. It is comfort food and it is called that for a reason. The combination of salt, sugar and fat works upon our brain the way drugs do. It lights up the pleasure and reward centres of our brain making us feel happy, content, blissful or numb. Even numb is preferrable to negative emotions sometimes. The problem is, this feeling does not last long and then our body tells us to eat more of these things to get that same “high” and continually chases that chemically induced happiness. We may even feel withdrawal as we start to eat clean and avoid sugary, fatty foods. Irritability, craving and even physical symptoms coexist with the emotional draw to consume these foods.

The most ironic thing at the moment, is the drive to eat these things comes not from a place of failure (“oh well, I’ve screwed up, I might as well eat everything I want,” but rather simply a number on the scale. Knowing that the number can’t be truly accurate in the big picture helps to halt that craving and emotional eating response. It is still difficult. The response is still automatic and so you have to be prepared to challenge those automatic thoughts again and again until it does become easier. Knowing that I ate really well yesterday and exercised, I can remind myself that it would be complete fallacy to use the number on the scale as an indication of today’s worth and progress. Knowing that I have already done so well in 3 days, I can remind myself how great a loss it would be to give in to momentary pleasure; how much these similar digressions have lead to yo-yoing weight on an ever increasing trend.

Thus it is important to keep practicing these mindful and logical cognitive challenges when the instinctive reaction to eat junk comes up. Know what you want and how far you have come. Keep the big picture in mind. If you do slip up, never give up. You can always stop right now; a treat does not need to be binge and a binge does not need to be a bender.

Sometimes I get ridiculous orders from my wheat-avoiding other half for veganised gluten-defying favourites. He’s a total sucker for spicy ‘(fake) meaty’ sausage rolls. I, on the other hand, have never been a massive fan of sosmix or meaty-textured foods. It’s not that I don’t like them now and again; I can just take or leave them. Linda McCartney’s are a good freezer food to have around for non-cooky days!

However, I do love a challenge! Unfortunately, most vegetarian sausage packet mixes either have egg or wheat rusk so I couldn’t use those. I wanted to create something spicy with a sort of ‘meaty’ texture so I turned to a combination of oats, beans and lentils.

For the pastry, I used a tried and tested recipe, which, unlike many other recipes for gluten-free pastry I’ve experimented with, can be rolled out and manipulated without just falling to pieces! The secret? Chickpea…

Today’s green smoothie is not so green. It’s slightly sour as I did not add half a banana (too underripe) like I probably would have, but it still tastes like fruit, not spinach.
2 kiwi
2 cups (maybe 1 1/2, just filled the magic bullet) spinach
Splash of pomegranate blueberry juice (maybe 1/4 cup in the end)
Couple handfuls of frozen mixed berries (1/2 cup maybe

(Thinking after the fact that 1/2-1 scoop vanilla protein would be nice and sweeten it up a bit)

Blend the greens with a little bit of juice until completely broken down. I find just a tiny splash, enough to help it work makes a smoother smoothie. Adding all the juice and you get chunks. Add the fruit and blend completely, adding as much juice as necessary to reach your preferred consistency.

Oh my gosh, why didn’t I think of this sooner? I have been using variations on date+almond larabar balls. A simple switch to pecans makes these pecan pie. Three ingredients. Two minutes. If you don’t know how easy date balls are to make, you’re missing out.

I was in need of something sweet. That usually calls for larabar balls unless its a special occasion. I convinced myself “Wednesday” was not a special occasion. So larabar balls it is.

I want chocolate. I always want chocolate, but there is no chocolate to be found in my house at the moment, so I had to pick something else….peanut butter came to mind.
I looked online to see if there were others who had made peanut butter larabars. There were, but they were just dates and peanuts. I did not think this would be enough. I thought there would be actual peanut butter in my recipe, but I tasted this mixture, and sure enough, it did not taste like peanut butter cookies. So I added peanut butter, salt and vanilla. Et voila! Tastes like peanut butter cookies! In minutes and without any refined sugar. I’m sold. I think you will be too.

Please note, I rarely measure, so adjust as needed to get the taste and consistency that works for you, rather than relying solely on measurements.

You can leave out the salt if you use regular peanut butter. Mine is 100% peanuts and nothing more.

Disclaimer: I have never had a peanut butter cookie dough Larabar. I just made these to taste like peanut butter cookies!

Thow everything in a food processor and pulse until well mixed and peanuts are chopped to your liking. Scrape sides as needed. Then, judging by taste and texture adjust the recipe. If it is too dry add more dates (if sweetness is also needed) or peanut butter or water. If too sticky, add more peanuts. Some of the stickiness will go away in the fridge. Roll into balls and store in the fridge. You could press into bars and wrap in wax paper, but I’ve never tried this. I like little bites. Enjoy.

You must try this. No really. They did not make it past the cookie sheet but went straight into my mouth.

Sour cream and onion kale chips. O…m….g! So good. I have not had sour cream and onion anything in years. As soon as I mixed up the dressing (or what should you call it?) I said aloud. “That smells just like sour cream and onion.”

I will not reprint the recipe as I did not change it, except to add more onion as they didn’t taste much after baking.

I used the oven method and 50-60 minutes at 200F was enough do use your lowest temperature and watch for burning.